Tarmon Gaidon and Beyond
by Dracnor d'Manrique
Summary: Tarmon Gaidon is lost by the forces of the Light. Tar Valon is the capital of the Dark Empire.


A cold wind crep over the slopes of Shayol Ghul through the Blasted Lands and the Borderlands and finally over the city that had once been called Tar Valon, coming to a dusty stop at the foot of the Dragonmount. The land was the same as it had been before the war had come and the land of men had been ravaged and torn asunder. The land was the only thing unchanged.  
  
Tarmon Gaidon had come quickly and violently as one would expect. It had left in its wake a land irrevocably changed, a land tormented by its opressors. The nations had not united quickly enough and the Dragon had never risen to lead his people against the Dark One's armies. Tar Valon had united with Andor and Cairhien to battle the trolloc hordes but it had not been enough. The Aes Sedai had lead them into battle, only to be broken quickly and shattered against the Dragonmount.  
  
Tar Valon was no longer a city of light, though its shining towers still stabbed powerfully into the gray sky. Ravens and rats had swarmed the battlefields, searching for survivors, but none existed. The world had been changed forever.  
  
~*~  
  
The cold wind caught a piece of torn cloak and waved it in the air, tickling her nose and causing her to awaken from the head trauma that she has sustained during the last push of the Shadow. Avalija Zerone opened her eyes slowly, breathing deep the stench of battle and the decay that always surrounded its aftermath. She was Aes Sedai, of the Blue Ajah. She had been in a circle with several other sisters, bringing lightning down from the heavens in hopes of shattering the Shadowspawn's lines. It had failed miserably and that was when the Dark One had released his horrid secret. Dreadlords.  
  
The female Dreadlords had been Aes Sedai in the White Tower, sisters of the never-spoken of Black Ajah. They had waited in secret for who knows how long, waiting to prey upon their own kind in the name of a dark master. Her head was ringing from the blow, she hadn't even seen what had hit her. Gently she ran a hand over her head and felt a soft stickiness, blood.  
  
She sat up and squinted and tried to see what was happening but her vision was very blurry as though she was standing in the midst of a thick fog. She rolled onto her side and pulled herself to her hands and knees, scanning as far as her eyes would allow. It was easy to make out the Dragonmount against the light grey sky and in the opposite direction, she could see the Tower. Blessed be the Light, the Tower still stood. She rose to her feet and decided to report in and see if there were bands of the Shadow that needed to be rounded up but before she could something leaped at her and brought her back down onto the rubble. Despite the handicap to her vision, she could clearly see that she had landed upon a body and that the whole field was littered with them, both trolloc and man alike. Mostly men. Too many men.  
  
A man hissed quietly, "Stay down and keep your flaming mouth shut. Stay still. Be dead." Apparently the man had a better grasp of the situation than Avalija, so she closed her mouth and stifled the yell of anger that had been rising there. No one would treat an Aes Sedai so. No one.  
  
She realized that there had been a sound beyond the man's voice, something skittering through the field softly sniffing as it went. It grew louder as if it was honed in on the Aes Sedai and her assailant. Finally through a slightly opened eyelid she could see the vague foggy shape of a Trolloc, walking through the killing fields stabbing into bodies to make sure that the men were dead. She almost gasped but caught herself before she the sound escaped. If the Trollocs were patrolling the fields between Tar Valon and the Dragonmount...  
  
Despair filled Avalija Zerone's heart as she realized that Tar Valon had fallen and the hope of the world had been extinguished. Inwardly she mourned all of the friends that she had lost, people that she had known for over fifty years of being an Aes Sedai. Her life had not been easy but she had always thought that they would be ready before Tarmon Gaidon, that they would eviscerate the Shadow.  
  
She lay still in the pile of bodies long after the Trolloc had moved on, for hours it seemed. She slipped in and out of slumber, somehow exhausted from the realization of what had happened to the world that she loved. Nightmares plagued her and she woke more than once to the sound of a Trolloc patrolling searching for more survivors to round up for what purpose she did not know.  
  
Finally the voice hissed again, "Listen to me, Aes Sedai. This will not be easy but I intend to see you to safety. Follow my orders and we will get out of here."  
  
Avalija spoke quietly back, slightly shocked at how different her voice felt... how different it sounded. "I... I can't see."  
  
The voice whispered, "I will be your eyes. You will have to trust me."  
  
A strong pair of hands seized her arms and yanked her to her feet. She sniffed indignantly in the direction that she thought her guardian was in and then was pulled in exactly the opposite direction. The voice said again, "Tar Valon belongs to the Shadow. The war went badly here and the Shadow's armies are conquering the westlands now. The Seanchan invaders are putting up a better fight than we did and are holding their own. Tarabon is safe at least from what little word has come through the network." They stopped suddenly and a hand sealed her mouth shut. A cry came from the skies above. Draghkar. It seemed that the lands of men truly belonged to the Shadow now. "It is now six days since Tar Valon fell. I am unsure of how you survived undetected, but you should thank the Creator for that. Find anything to thank the Creator for and you are lucky now."  
  
They moved again and stumbled forward for several hours. The going was tough and sloping ever upward until they finally came to a stop against a large rock wall... the Dragonmount. The man spoke louder now, "My name is Souriew Kolshiere. I fought here as a member of the Towerguard though I am... was a Borderlander. In just a few hours, an Aes Sedai will open a gateway to our hiding spot. We're going to organize a resistance, Aes Sedai. We're going to take back what is ours."  
  
Avalija blinked thrice before she realized the full effect of what the man was saying. They were going to battle for their own lands. 


End file.
